Inaccurate study quoting, Re: anti-crypto rhetoric (Ellison,

[Nicholas Bohm]

At 11:40 4/04/1998 +0100, Brian Gladman wrote:

[snip]

>So, DTI, if you really are about to propose a policy with Key Escrow
>features could we please have the following:
>
>1. a clear, precise and complete statement of the objectives that you are
>trying to meet by including Key Escrow features in such a policy;
>
>2. evidence to show that these objectives serve the interests of UK
>citizens;
>
>3. evidence to show that Key Escrow is practical and capable of meeting
>these objectives given an information society that is global in scope;
>
>4. an assessment of all alternative policies that might meet these
>objectives, showing clearly that Key Escrow is demonstrably the best option;
>
>5. evidence to show that Key Escrow will provide benefits for society and
>that these benefits outweigh its costs in individual, social and economic
>terms;
>
>If you can do this I feel sure that you will gain the widespread support of
>UK citizens.

An admirable summary of the justification Government needs to provide.

A problem with the case summaries cited here (judging them purely from the
extracts quoted here) is that they do not distinguish between weak and
strong encryption (so some might have been no more than cases of passwords
on spreadsheets, trivial as a hindrance to law enforcement); they do not
distinguish stored data from communications (key escrow schemes being
irrelevant to stored data); and in the case of communications, there is no
attempt to distinguish criminal-to-criminal communications (where key
escrow has no real hope of making any difference) from
criminal-to-innocent-party communications (where key escrow could be argued
to convert delayed access into real-time access).

A substantial body of credible evidence on the value of real-time access to
criminal-to-innocent-party communications would be relevant to the key
escrow issue.  The rest is blather.

	Regards,

		Nicholas Bohm

Salkyns, Great Canfield,
Takeley, Bishop's Stortford CM22 6SX, UK

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